an elusive voice
by electrikitty
Summary: the princes have tried to discover their tutor's secrets many times before, but in the wake of the romano princes' visit, they realise that they have never once heard heine... sing? So naturally, it's time for a no-holds-barred attempt to find out the truth about Heine's singing voice! / the royal tutor / one-shot / movie spoilers


**A/N: **Hi everyone! New one-shot inspired by the new Royal Tutor Movie! (Which is available worldwide on Crunchyroll, so go and watch it and support the series, everyone!) As such, the usual warnings of 'mild spoilers, you should probably watch the movie first, etc,' and enjoy!

* * *

**An Elusive Voice**

'You know, for all of that — you didn't even sing, Teach!'

Heine looked up from his desk. 'What? I mean, pardon?'

It was the day after the little Angels of Romano had returned to their home country. Some semblance of order had resumed, the princes were back at their lessons and the palace servants were trying to clean the glitter and confetti off the floor of the palace ballroom.

Licht leaned forward, only to nearly slip off the sofa and fall into a pile of books. 'Yikes! But no, seriously — we spent an entire week on singing lessons and performing and we didn't even hear you sing once!'

'Hey, that's right!'

'There was merely no call for it, but I'm sure Master's vocal ability would be unrivalled if he were to demonstrate his skill!'

'Mm… probably good at it, too…'

Heine paused. Then said, 'Let us… put that aside for now.'

'What? Boo!'

'Aww…'

'Licht!'

'…?'

'Now now, enough of that. Returning to your lessons, we're finished for the day, yes?' Heine handed them a sheaf of paper each, 'Here is your homework — ' and rounded them up, pushing them towards the door, ' — and I will see you later — ' and shoved them out into the corridor, ' — and good day.'

And the door slammed shut.

The princes blinked.

Licht smiled warily. '…Was it something I said?'

'For once, brother — _no_.'

* * *

The princes were gathered in one of the palace sitting rooms, and plotting yet again as to how they could uncover one of their tutor's secrets.

'Gahhh! No faaair — how do we get him to _sing_?!' Leonhard whined. He kicked the heels of his boots against the chaise lounge.

Licht sighed. 'I was only curious — but since he evaded the point we're honour-bound to drag the truth of the matter out of him now, aren't we?'

'We are not, Licht!'

'Come on, Brunie — surely you want to know exactly what kind of voice Teach has, right? Alto? Tenor? Baritone?'

'Nngh…'

'Exactly, thank you.'

'But what if his voice is awful?' Leonhard wondered.

'How dare you cast aspersions upon Master's talent, how dare you… Oh.'

'Yes, he said the exact same thing at that art class.' Licht popped a set of quotation marks and quoted, "Let us put that aside." And it turned out that his drawing skills are _ghastly_.'

'I can't dispute that Master's artistic talent yet lies undiscovered, but…'

'So we can draw the logical conclusion that he may be deflecting because his singing voice sounds like a cat stuck in a guillotine.'

'Guillotine?!' Leonhard shrieked.

'Calm yourself, Leonhard.' Bruno steepled his fingers together, and frowned. 'Yet it could be the opposite. Perhaps his singing ability is so excellent that it garnered him jealous rivals and saboteurs that tried to destroy his career, so he swore to take the secret of his voice to the grave!'

Licht stared at him for a minute. 'Bruno… what are you doing writing academic papers at university? You should be writing five-_kreuzer_ crime novels — they'd sell.'

'I don't read or write that bookstall trash…'

'I mean, heaven forbid that you read anything that doesn't spew accumulated dust when you turn the pages.'

Leonhard jumped to his feet and placed his hands on his hips. 'Okay, enough. We're not going to find out the truth by just sitting here talking, so let's come up with some ideas to try and get Heine to sing!'

* * *

'Heine?'

Heine looked up and then turned around to see who was disturbing his chambers. 'Prince Leonhard? Can I help you?'

The prince grinned sheepishly and said, 'I was wondering if you'd help me brush up on the 'Prince in the Palace of Thorns' song we learned with Ivan and Eugene?'

Heine finally nodded, but he looked very confused. '…As you wish, but why…?'

'Because the others have been planning to make a gramophone recording of it — ' Leonhard grinned brightly and said, 'And you know me, my memory-retention is second-worst to none!' He paused and tapped his lip. 'Or was it second-best to none? Ah, I'm already forgetting what they said…'

'Prince…'

Outside the door, Bruno clapped a hand over Licht's mouth just in time to muffle a scream of frustration. 'Shh!'

'Sowwy…' Licht prised Bruno's fingers off far enough to speak and hissed, 'But what the h_ does he think he's doing?! If he keeps going like that then Heine's going to guess that we've put him up to something!'

'We'll just have to wait and see…'

Meanwhile, Heine knocked Leonhard's feet into the proper stance with the tip of one boot, and poked the prince's shoulders and spine into place. 'There. 'Tis not much difference from standing at attention.'

'Wait… pay attention? I am paying attention!' Leonhard protested.

Heine sighed and took a seat at the harpsichord. 'Shall we run through the song, then? Do you remember the lyrics?'

'My memory's not _that_ bad! No, I was wondering if you would help me out with some of the more difficult parts? I'm not hitting the notes quite right…' Leonhard gave him a sideways glance. 'If I could hear someone else sing it, maybe that would help.'

Heine paused. 'I can point out where your pitch could use some work as you sing. Begin.'

'Oh really? That sounds easy, great.'

'_That defeats the point of the whole thing!_' Licht shrieked under his breath.

However, neither Leonhard nor Heine heard him, and they began the song uninterrupted.

'Now let us open the birdcage — '

'Lower.'

'Staying true to our feelings — '

'Higher.'

'We'll listen carefully —

'Deeper.'

'And fly away into the endless future — '

'Sweeter — '

'_That's not even a thing!_'

'Really? With the amount of sugar and chocolate you consume each day, it shouldn't be that difficult.' Heine flipped the lid of the harpsichord down and nodded. 'While wanting brushing up on previously learned pieces is commendable, I see no problems here. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure why we're doing this — '

'Well…' Leonhard toyed with his hair and grumbled, 'I'm not _that_ good at singing. Not like Eugene or Licht… I just wanted to hear you sing it, and maybe I'd pick up some pointers. You know, cause you're so good at everything.'

'…I'm flattered, Prince, but I think not.'

'But whyyy?!'

'That whining is excessive and I beg you to stop it at once. Aside from that — my singing voice is quite different to yours. It would be better for you to emulate someone with a similar-sounding voice.'

Leonhard's ears pricked. _Different? Does that mean it's better or worse? But he could mean _anything_ by different… D_it…_

Heine frowned, still lost in thought. 'Hm… Ah. Here's what we'll do. As you'd taken such an interest in musical studies, let us arrange private music lessons for you.'

'Uh, wait — '

'I can ask Herr Niche, the court painter, which of the court musicians may be able to tutor you — '

'Heine — '

Heine leaned past Leonhard and out the door. 'Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Herr Niche, do you know of anyone in the royal court who could tutor prince Leonhard in music — '

The flamboyant painter fairly swooned, and said, 'Yes! Yes twice and thrice and all the other numbers — but you _must_ let me paint him while he's practicing — oh, I can just _see_ the composition now — ' He abandoned the conversation and sprinted off to his studio yelling, 'Come to me, my muse, _come_!'

Heine stepped back into his room with visible wariness still on his face. 'Well, there you have it. You can start on Monday — '

'But Heine — _I don't want music lessons!_'

'Oh? Then you should have said so. If that concludes this then I must get back to work — you've had your singing pointers and I'll — '

Heine stopped in the middle of walking Prince Leonhard out the door and stared at the princes huddled outside. 'Boys? What are you doing outside my door?'

Licht, Bruno and Kai jumped to their feet and one beat too many passed before Licht blurted out, 'Replacing the wallpaper!'

Heine simply stared. 'Then where are all your things — '

'We already spirited 'em away!'

Heine ran a finger down the wallpaper. 'Let's say that I'm buying this absurdity for a moment — this wallpaper seems rather old…'

'It's called weathering, dear Master!' Bruno leaned against the wall with one hand in an attempt to look suave, and said, 'It's all the rage in interior design circles! Because we absolutely know what we're talking about here, right, Licht?!'

'Right…'

'Well, kudos, Princes — '

And the queen mother walked down the hall with Helene on her heels, the maid carrying a notepad and pencil. 'Oh, and the wallpaper needs replacing in here — could you make a note, Helene? Good heavens, I think this lot has been around since Viktor was a child…'

'Yes Madame!'

They continued on and disappeared around the corner.

Heine gave the princes an unimpressed look. '_Boys_…'

But they were already sprinting down the hall fast enough to rattle the chandeliers —

'I-I've gotta go, I've got some girls waiting on me!'

'I've got a thesis to prepare, I'm terribly sorry!'

'Soft things — patting — urgent!'

'And I've gotta run!'

Heine was left standing in the empty hallway. He rested a hand on the doorframe and sighed. 'I don't think I even want to know…'

* * *

'So we think this will work?'

'Of course it will; this is dearest brother Bruno we're talking about!'

Licht, Leonhard, and Kai stood beside the door of Heine's room, having painstakingly padded down the hall, after waiting for enough time to pass so that Heine would hopefully have forgotten about their prior attempt.

'Any moment now…' Licht muttered.

And the strains of a violin seeped through the floor, filling the palace's halls.

Heine glanced up at the ceiling and half-smiled, then returned to his work.

'So this is Vivaldi, right? "Four Seasons?'

'Mm.'

The princes watched as Heine continued to write. Above their heads, Bruno swapped to Pachelbel's "Canon in D," then to Bach's 'Orchestral Suite #3'.

Leonhard crossed his arms behind his head. '…He's not singing.'

The 'William Tell Overture' blasted through the quiet stillness of the palace, and Heine tapped his pen on his desk — not in an attempt to keep the rhythm but rather in restless irritation.

'Ugh. I think we forgot something.'

'What?'

'Bruno knows how to play classical music and concertos — _and that type of music doesn't have lyrics!_'

'Meaning?'

'For the love of — how on earth is Heine going to be tempted to sing or follow the tune if there are no _words_? That's just stupid!'

'Hey, I am _not_ stupid!'

'I'm saying our idea was _collectively_ stupid — ugh, I'll be back, wait here!'

Licht sprinted off and took the nearest staircase two-at-a-time. A short while later, 'The 1812 Overture' came to a screeching halt, and a silence followed. Heine glanced up, then returned to his work again.

Then a more lively tune began to play and Licht dashed back down the stairs. 'I got Bruno a pile of operetta and folk song sheet music — let's see if that does anything.' Licht grimaced. 'He needs to get out more — I could probably play some of it by memory just from going to the opera so many times.'

'Operettas?'

'You know, commoner's entertainment.'

'Ugh.'

'Enough of that, Leo.'

Bruno played one piece after another, all familiar tunes from operas that were household names: '_Die Fledermaus,_' '_Indigo und die vierzig Räuber_,' and '_Tristan und Isolde._'

The princes watched intently, but Heine didn't make a sound. He occasionally nodded in time to the rhythm, but that was all.

'This is hopeless… can we give up now…'

'Not yet!'

By this point the novelty was wearing thin and Heine was looking decidedly irritated. Granted, a lot of the operetta pieces were long, but it wasn't as though Bruno was playing them _badly_ by any means.

'What's his problem?' Leonhard hissed. 'He should be honoured to have the privilege of hearing dearest brother play!'

'Apparently Heine is better at playing music than Bruno... From what I've heard,' Kai whispered.

'What?!'

Licht clapped a hand over Leonhard's mouth. 'Shh!'

Heine got up — scaring them all for a moment — but merely went over to a chest of drawers on the other side of the room. He rummaged around, making a terrific racket, before returning to his desk with a lavender scarf and a pair of earmuffs. He proceeded to tie the scarf around his head and ears, before jamming the earmuffs on as a final touch.

'Oh _. I think we really ticked him off…'

'That's not our problem!'

Bruno continued to play, now playing some of Glanzreich's traditional folk pieces — known as _Volksmusik_ — one after the other, no doubt desperate and stumbling slightly by now. But the window of opportunity was clearly lost if Heine's gradually disappearing ill humour was anything to go by — the earmuffs were obviously doing their job, and doing it too well at that.

Licht sighed. 'Forget it. We've lost this one. If nothing else, I just want to know what was up with that so I'm going to go ask and get some personal gratification. Back in a sec.'

He got up and walked in, saying, 'Hey, Teach, what's with the get up? You look like a sheik from the Kingdom of Quatar! …Is Bruno's playing _really_ that horrible?'

Heine looked up from his work and said, 'Oh, Prince Licht. No, not at all — it was enjoyable to listen to. But I'm trying to draft your lessons, and the subject matter required more concentration that listening to Bruno's playing would permit.'

'Oh, ahaha, right. See ya — '

'Wait a moment, did you need something?'

'No, just passing by and I wondered if you were trying to make a fashion statement or if you'd had a fight with your coat stand. Byeee — '

Licht walked out the door and his smile turned to a grimace in an instant. Leonhard and Kai looked equally disappointed.

'Well, that blew chunks,' Leonhard said.

'Classy, Leo, classy.' Licht rubbed a gloved hand over his face and said, 'Don't tell Bruno about that, all right? Seriously, _don't_. If he found out he'd inconvenienced his precious master, he'd probably have a stroke and go to heaven posthaste.'

'_No! _…But what if I slip up and say something?' Leonhard panicked.

Licht shrugged. 'Well, if worst comes to worst, it's not like Bruno would mind, right?' He covered his grin with one hand. 'Look at the bright side!

'What bright side?!'

'He'd get there early and be able to reserve a seat for Heine, so that whenever Heine showed up then the two of them could spend all eternity together — _oh hey, Brunie, hiii?!_'

Leonhard and Kai whipped around to see Bruno stumble down the stairs and head in their direction. 'Well, I think my arms are going to fall off, but I'm still alive,' Bruno said, looking completely ragged and worse for wear. Despite his fatigue, he gave them a hopeful smile. 'Well?'

'Not a peep out of him.'

Bruno froze. 'Truly?' Then he realised they weren't kidding, and he tore at his hair and yelled, 'OH_, BLAST IT ALLLLL!_'

'_Prince Bruno?!_'

'Oh d_it, I think Teach heard that — _run!_'

* * *

'Ooh, and did you see that classic operetta that's been showing at Karl Theatre?'

Licht slid the girls' melanges across the table with practiced flicks and dropped his hands on the table, leaning forward with a wicked grin. 'Regrettably, no — but isn't that the one with the male lead who's meant to be an absolute dream?'

'_Kyah_, yes! And his voice is like an angel's, as deep as anything and his looks are just as good!'

'I'll have to get tickets, oh…' Licht shrugged his shoulders so dramatically and with such heartbroken expression that he nearly tore his suit jacket. 'But I don't have anyone to go with — whatever shall I do?'

The girls squealed in delight, and tripped over each other in their efforts to comfort him.

'I'll take you!'

'No, I will!'

'Pick me, I'll take you!'

Felix yanked Licht back by his apron strings and said, 'How about I take you — '

'Gee, Master, you're not really my type — '

' — out the back with a wooden paddle if you keep this nonsense up, Rich?'

'Leave our poor Richie alone!' the girls shrieked, hissing like savage, well-groomed cats. 'Back off!'

Felix flinched. 'Good grief. Pardon, madames. Anyways, back to work, "Richie?"'

Licht rolled his eyes. 'Yes, yes. _Master_,' he tacked on hurriedly.

Licht gathered up the girls' empty water glasses, only to hear one of them say, 'And isn't the song just enchanting?'

'What's the name of the operetta, girls?'

'Oh, it's that other one by that guy. You know — not that one or that one but the other one.'

'Ah, that one.'

Licht waltzed off and swapped his tray of dirty dishes for an empty one, taking Heine's melange over to his table.

'This one's on the house, Teach.'

'Oh, thank you, Pri— I mean, dearest elder brother Rich.'

'Well, that did not roll off the tongue smoothly.'

'Merely using Leonhard's pet names for Bruno as inspiration. My nonexistent prior experiences as a younger brother are not helping my case.'

Heine took the coffee up without even putting down his pen, continuing to work on writing out the princes' lessons.

'Hey, Teach, you know that operetta that's been showing at Karl Theatre? What was that song it's famous for? I can't quite think of the tune…'

'Oh…' Heine tipped his head to the side and considered for a moment. 'I know the one you mean. Hm…'

'I guess you could just sing it…?'

Heine shot him a look and Licht tried not to flinch. '…I think not. It would be inconsiderate to the other patrons, amongst other things.' Heine glanced around the table, at the tableware, glasses, coffee cups, and the table itself, lightly tapping each of the items. Then he took the spoon and tapped out the bass notes with his fingernails and played the melody by tapping a metal spoon to the assorted cups and glasses. 'And done.' He glanced up. 'Was that it?'

'Ah, that's the one.' Then Licht blinked. 'Wait — _no fair, how did you even do that?!_'

'Get back to work, Prince… If you're so desperate to have it sung, then sing it yourself.'

'Gh… Fair enough. Fine, looks like I'll get all the attention and applause to myself — '

A passing waiter landed a solid whack between Licht's shoulder blades, saying with a scoff, 'That sounds about right. You'd think you were some hotshot singing star with the way you carry on around here…'

The two of them walked off, arguing all the way.

'Hey! My voice is actually good, you know! The ladies love it!'

'Yeah, I'm sure!'

'I'll prove it!'

'No thanks — I don't want to have to clean up the broken glass when the windows shatter.'

'Hey!'

Heine retreated to his coffee and papers with a sigh. The sooner that the princes got whatever was in their system today _out _of their systems, the happier he would be.

* * *

'Teacher? Sorry it's late, but…'

'Not at all, Prince Kai. Did you need something?'

The prince stepped into Heine's room and nodded.

He'd struggled to come up with an idea to try to get Heine to sing, as he didn't sing often or play an instrument regularly himself. And he didn't want to lie to his teacher, either. But he'd actually hit on something after some thought, and he decided to keep it simple — if it worked, it worked, and if it didn't, it… well, didn't.

So Kai said, 'I forgot our national anthem.'

Heine stared at him for a good minute. 'You… forgot it?'

Kai gestured, trying to explain. 'We all learn the national anthem and sing it in military school in the first year of academy, but… now that I'm back, I realised it's been over a year since I last was there and so I realised I've… forgotten the national anthem.'

'I… see…' Heine said weakly. 'But what do you do when you have to sing it in assembly and such?'

'I pretend like I'm singing it. No one's noticed. I think.'

'Couldn't you ask your friend Elmer von Bismarck to run through it with you?'

Kai paused. 'Oh. That's a good idea, I didn't think of that.' Then he remembered that that wasn't the point and he said, 'But I don't want to bother him with it… Could I ask for your help?'

'Of course, Prince.'

'If you know the song, then — '

But Heine was already heading for the door, gesturing for Prince Kai to follow. 'If you would follow me, Prince, I think I have an idea.'

Kai chased Heine down the halls to a far-off sitting room, that on entering, was obviously designed to house a gramophone. Heine left Prince Kai there for a moment and then returned with a cylinder in his arms, placing it carefully in the device.

The strains of the national anthem filled the room.

Heine folded his hands and offered Kai a slight bow. 'That should solve your problem, Prince. Listen to your heart's content.'

_Sorry, brothers. That's that._

Kai dropped into a chair and it felt like the equivalent of raising his hands in surrender. 'Thanks, Teacher. Good night.'

'Good night to you as well, Prince.'

Heine left the prince to listen to the recording, and as soon as the prince was out of sight, his shoulders dropped and he sighed. A mild thunderstorm brewed above the palace roof, with hints of lightning. What on earth had prompted all the princes to have problems all on the same day? And the problems were all music-related…

Music-related?

Heine drew to a halt, yet for the life of him he couldn't understand what would have brought this turn of events about. He kept walking. Perhaps it was merely too many singing lessons crammed into the space of a week with the Romano princes, and that was that.

He nearly made it back to his room and his bed, except for a figure that pattered towards him from the other end of the corridor. 'Professor Heine!'

Heine stopped. '…Princess Adele?'

* * *

The next morning, the princes were walking down the halls of the palace dressed to the nines in their gala formal uniforms, a white ensemble bedazzled with gold braid and glitter.

'D_it… I can hardly breathe…'

Bruno attempted to straighten Leonhard's collar, but there was little they could do. All expensive outfits came with instructions, and while 'do not scrub vigorously' and 'please remove accessories before flat ironing' were repeat offenders, the most common one — yet the only one that was implied — was 'grin and bear it.'

'Chin up, Leonhard. Besides, we do this every week, and church services only go for couple of hours! And we can have some torte when we get back, how does that sound?'

'They should serve torte instead of bread in communion,' Leonhard grumbled. 'It would make things more bearable.'

'It could be worse,' Kai said. 'Royals used to be chosen from the Glanzreich dynasty to serve the church… you'd have to sit in church all day — '

'Become a priest?!' Licht shrieked. 'No way! That is _not_ the life for me — where's the fun in that?!'

Bruno choked at length, no doubt as horrified as everyone else at the mere idea of Licht working as a member of the clergy. He got a hold of himself and said sternly, 'It would be a sacred duty and a privilege! But I am somewhat glad it does not apply to our generation — as I'd likely have the task shoved onto me from you and Leonhard and I have papers to write,' he said with a wry smile.

'I wouldn't mind it…' Kai said. He patted the air. 'The outfits are velvet, aren't they? Probably soft…'

'…I think that job would suit Kai almost too well.'

They would likely have continued discussing the pros and cons of working in the church further, had a completely foreign sound not caught their attention. They skidded to a startled halt.

'Wait… Is that singing?'

'It seems so.'

'Should we go and look?'

They followed the sound, and it quickly became apparent that it was singing, and beautiful singing, for that matter.

'My word… People would kill for a voice like that.'

'Is it one of the servants?'

'It can't be…'

They came to a halt in one of the hallways, close enough to hear the singing in detail. The person singing had an incredibly low bass voice that sounded as rich as chocolate and smooth as velvet — calling to mind coffee and spices and nights under the stars. The voice fit the words of the Gherman music that it was singing as perfectly as a glove.

'I wish you could put voices in a jar so you could listen to them all the time,' Leonhard said. He blinked drowsily, like a cat, completely under the spell of the music.

'Indeed…'

They probably could have stood there for another couple of hours, but they came to their senses long enough to look around the hall, deducing which door likely hid the owner of the voice.

Licht cast a suspicious glance at one of the doors, suddenly realising what might be going on. 'Don't tell me — '

'Wait — what's someone doing singing in Heine's room?!' Leonhard blurted out.

'What?!'

The princes glanced at each other. Still in a state of shock, they gingerly pushed the door open.

It took them a good minute to register the fact that Heine was leaning against an open window with his eyes closed and a smile on his face — with the fact that his lips were moving and he was the one singing.

His voice was beautifully low in pitch. It changed the hymn to something completely different, careless of sheet music yet touching every right note. The soft burn of his voice sounded like a symphony of strings in a chapel of stone and stained glass.

'Turns out his voice was bass, I guess?' Licht pulled himself together and stammered, 'W-Whoa. That's incredible.'

'Wow…'

'Unbelievable, Master — '

'_Why didn't you tell us you could sing?!_' Leonhard protested.

Heine's eyes flew open and he clapped a hand to his mouth. He looked up. 'What the — Princes? What are you doing here?'

'Read the room, Leo.' Licht smiled guiltily and said, 'If it were not apparent from the gaudy outfits — we have royal duties to attend to, namely bestowing the royal parish with the honour of our presence and sitting in church like good little princes. But enough about that!'

'Licht is right — we had no idea you could sing so well!' Bruno stammered.

'Yeah,' Leonhard said, 'We tried everything to get you to sing and _this_ is how we find out?!'

Heine's eyebrows shot up. 'Oh. Your ridiculous theatrics from yesterday finally make sense, it would seem.'

'Way to land us in the homework, Leo…' Licht muttered, and landed a sharp elbow in Leonhard's ribs.

'Ow!'

'But really, Master,' Bruno said. His brow creased. 'Forgive us for our prying into the matter — but as you sing so incredibly well, as we inadvertently found out, why would you hide it?'

Heine leaned against the wall, 'Well… 'Tis not a very… good reason, given all the fuss you've gone to ascertain the truth, I must admit.' He reddened slightly. 'It's somewhat pathetic.'

'Are you actually bad at singing and you've got someone standing behind to the curtains to do it for you?' Leonhard asked.

'…Do you get stage fright?' Kai ventured.

Licht gave Bruno a sideways look. 'Did you run afoul of saboteurs in the music industry and swear to take the secret of your voice to your grave?'

'Did you — wait, what?!' Bruno protested. 'Come off that, already!'

'Heh.' They stopped their bickering to see Heine hiding a smile behind his hand. 'No, it is nothing so dramatic as that. No.' He grimaced slightly and said, 'No. As you've no doubt noticed, I look somewhat young and yet my voice is rather low.'

'Ah, yes. That's true enough.'

'And my singing voice is even lower than that. Whenever I happened to sing, for whatever reason, it would confuse people — because they couldn't reconcile my low voice with the fact that I looked like a child…' Heine gave the princes an embarrassed smile. 'So I decided to just keep my voice to myself so I didn't have to deal with all the fuss it caused. It's… somewhat ridiculous, isn't it?'

'Eh, Teach…' Licht shrugged and grinned. 'Yeah, but they're probably just jealous!'

'And too stupid to see past surface appearances,' Leonhard added bluntly. 'We all know what you look like so what would _we_ care if your voice doesn't match up with your looks? It's not weird.'

'If they weren't too busy getting hung up on the details, they'd be telling you that your voice is amazing!' Licht added.

'Licht is correct, Master, it was truly a pleasure to listen to.'

'You have a good singing voice, Teacher…'

Heine's eyes widened. 'What, r-really?'

'It even sounds kind of nice, I guess,' Leonhard muttered under his he placed his hands on his hips and said, 'So sing whenever you want, I order you to as your prince!'

'O-Oh, I see — '

'And besiiiides,' Licht drawled. 'People know now that the royal tutor looks like a child, so that means you can sing whenever you want! You might even earn as much acclaim as you did for your exploits at the art museum!'

Heine flinched. 'My word, no. Heaven forbid.' But he smiled slightly. 'Thank you. I confess, you all are too curious for your own good. But keeping such a trivial matter to myself due to habit, when in hindsight such secrecy was unnecessary, seems to have caused you all an inconvenience — so I apologise for that.'

'Hmph. I guess we can forgive you,' Leonhard said. 'But now you have to give us singing lessons and sing yourself, no arguments.'

Heine sighed and shook his head. 'A valid point, but I'm not even professionally trained. I think your compliments were a little over-generous — '

'Professor Heine!'

Adele ran into the room with a bright smile on her face. 'I heard you singing! Can you sing that song for me again? Pretty please?'

Heine lifted Adele up onto the windowsill, and a half-smile touched his features. 'Of course. Which one?'

'"_Weißt du, wie viel Sternlein stehen_"!'

'Ah, that one.' Heine rested his elbows on the windowsill. He drew breath to sing, only for the princes to interrupt and _loudly_ at that.

'What?! Adele, you knew Heine could sing?!'

She peered over Heine's shoulder. 'Yeah?'

'_Why?!_'

'Because I ask him to sing me lullabies when I can't sleep in thunderstorms!'

'Why didn't we enlist her help…' Bruno said wearily.

Heine caught Adele's eye. 'So did you want that song, Princess?'

Her eyes sparkled, and she said, 'Yes!'

Heine looked out the window, and the words and melody of '_Weißt du, wie viel Sternlein stehen_' came as naturally as breathing. '_Weißt du, wie viel Sternlein stehen, an dem blauen Himmelszelt? Weißt du, wie viel Wolken gehen, weithin über alle Welt?_' With mere words and melody, it felt like listening to starlight, and sunlight, and the edges of the room faded away and left only Heine's crooning voice and Adele's smile. '_Gott der Herr hat sie gezählet, dass ihm auch nicht eines fehlet, an der ganzen großen Zahl._'

Watching him sing to the princess, it seemed to the princes that they were looking at a completely different side of their tutor. One that spent the nights singing lullabies to little girls who couldn't sleep and going without sleep himself, like a father with his daughter. One with a voice and a heart of gold, who spent his time helping others discover their gifts rather than brushing the dust off his own.

'…He really is a good guy, isn't he?' Licht murmured.

'Undoubtedly.' Bruno smiled. 'And no doubt still full of surprises.'

'Teacher is always nice to everyone… No matter what. It's nice.'

'Hmph. I guess.' Leonhard waved at Heine, and the tutor raised his eyebrows slightly, still singing the words of '_Weißt du, wie viel Sternlein stehen'_. 'Hey, Heine! We should all sing together sometime!'

Just a flicker of emotion flashed over Heine's face. The briefest smile. The music slowed just long enough for him to say, 'I'd like that, Prince. Thank you.'

_The End_

* * *

**A/N: **This little thing likely happened because of two reasons: 1. I fell in love with Keisuke Ueda's voice while working on translating the end credits song from the Royal Tutor Movie into English, and 2. someone pointed out that Heine did not sing once in the film, and things went from there with the usual chaotic hilarity.

Sidenote: The song that Heine was singing to Adele is called '_Weißt du, wie viel Sternlein stehen_' but in English it means 'Do You Know, How Many Stars Stand?' As 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,' wasn't written until the 1900's, this was an earlier-written piece and also what you could call a German equivalent of 'Twinkle Twinkle.' The English version of the verse that Heine sang is, 'Can you count the stars that brightly twinkle in the midnight sky? Can you count the clouds, so lightly o'er the meadows floating by? God, the Lord, doth mark their number, with His eyes that never slumber; He hath made them every one.' I'm imagining Keisuke Ueda doing a cover of the original German song now, and the image delights.

Reviews welcome, and thanks for reading!


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